Ever made yourself play a game you didn’t like because it’s “important?”

[Razzie.P]

It’s not strange for film buffs to watch movies (multiple times, even) they don’t like and/or have no interest in because it’s deemed “important.”  They may not enjoy Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Godfather, Kurosawa films, etc, but they’ll watch, and often study these films just the same.

Literature buffs will read Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, Moby Dick, etc, etc… yeah, you get it. 

 

A music buff may not like Beatles and Beach Boys, but they’ll likely give Sgt Pepper and Pet Sounds multiple playthroughs …

 

 

How about you/us/we game fans?

 

Ever sink a lot of time into a game you didn’t really like, maybe even forcing yourself to finish it, simply because you feel you need to experience it because it’s “important?”  Or is it always, “screw that… I don’t like it, I’m moving on to something else?

 

And maybe not just important as in “this game means a lot to video games, so….” Maybe it was important for a different reason.  Like, you promised a friend or family member that you’d play it.  Or you promised yourself that you’ll see it to the end.

 

 

For me, here are a few that come to mind immediately –

 

Psychonauts --  I have this game in my collections in multiple formats, but it never  held my attention for more than  a couple of hours.   I’m always hearing about how great it is, and with part 2 coming out, I made myself a promise to play through it.   And… I pretty much hated it most of the way.  But I finished, and glad I did

 

Xenoblade Chronicles – Same as Psychonauts.  Bought it multiple times (Wii, 3DS, and Switch) but always got bored after a couple of hours.   Promised myself I’d finish it, did that, and didn’t like it at all.

 

Inside – so many perfect scores and so many critics with “pinky out” praise for this, I had to check it out.  Ended up playing through twice over time, and nope… didn’t like it either time.

 

God of War – The PS4 version.  4th one, I think it was, with the older Kratos.   Same as the “Inside” situation.  This was miserable to me.  Way too much “let’s just walk while we listen to dialog” and when action did happen, button mashing just worked to finish any fight, except the quicktime events.

 

Currently, there’s a wee stirring in my heart saying “… time to try Breath of the Wild again…”  So here we go again, maybe.
 

[BydoEmpire]

No, never.  Games are a fun form of entertainment, they're games. They aren't at all the same as literature or music in my mind, but that's a separate topic.

 

If you're studying game design (formally or informally) I totally see value in going through some of these classics or standard-bearer types of games to learn from.  That makes complete sense.

[Keatah]

No. At most I'll maybe watch a bit of a playthrough vid.

[toiletunes]

I'll try big name games if I find them for the right price. I'll resell them if they're not for me. Results are mixed. I enjoyed Tomb Raider, but not Megaman. Final Fantasy was ok. Castlevania was ok.

[Reaperman]

I bought a wii mostly to crap on it with more authority--that's kind of a variation of the same idea, if a bit more meanspirited ?

 

Honestly, I mostly don't finish games, even ones I pretty much love. As soon as I stop having fun, I consider myself having 'finished' the game, and go on to greener fields, since my backlog is too large to waste time not having a good time. I finished skyrim in about 20 minutes--I think I was still in the tutorial. I joined the wrong side in the initial battle, read a *VERY* boring 20+ page book about politics and dragons, before dubbing a blacksmith 'the final boss' and having at him.

 

Both times I tried xenoblade, I got to different spots, once at the base of the neck, once the back of the head. I still think it's the best thing I've seen a wii do, and really love it. I didn't get quite as far on the wii-u one, but I finished the switch one--though I refuse to start the DLC, because about the last thing I need is that game to go on another 20-30hrs.

Edited July 18, 2021 by Reaperman

[Steven Pendleton]

Sure. I've tried playing Symphony of the Night like at least 10 times, but I've only managed to force myself to finish it 3 times.

[bluejay]

Nearly every Zelda game; especially the older. But the games are growing on me, so this is getting more and more irrelevant. However, when I first started playing them I played them just because I thought they were crucial games to play as a gamer. 

Edited July 19, 2021 by bluejay

[Pipercub]

I read this thread title and said out loud "T3 pinball"! I love the Terminator series, even have a full size T800 in my kitchen, and love the T coin-ops mostly. The T2 pin and vid are in the collection as is the T4 gun game and I really wanted to have them all so every time I go to an auction and there is a T3 pinball I play it and play it trying to like it enough to take one home but I just can't. Horrible artwork, gross colors, dollar store quality models, and the game play consists of like 3 turn arounds on an otherwise vacant play field. BARF. I always leave without one.

 

 

 

*Yes, I know it isn't a console game, but my hatred of this situation transcends categories.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Pipercub

[digdugnate]

I'm in the 'nope' category for this one.   Regardless of a game's perception or standing, if I play a game for a bit and it's just not fun for me (for whatever reason), it's a big nope.

 

Earthbound, I'm looking at you.

[zzip]

After suffering through the "The Last of Us" which was so boring it put me to sleep more than once,  I stopped taking critics very seriously.

[Razzie.P]

23 hours ago, BydoEmpire said:

No, never.  Games are a fun form of entertainment, they're games. They aren't at all the same as literature or music in my mind

I can appreciate that mindset, for sure.  Funny thing, though – when I’ve had similar discussions with my music/movie/book friends, some tend to view their hobby in the same light.  As in, they feel that movies/books/music  are meant as entertainment only, and should never go beyond that.  Not saying anyone is right or wrong in their opinions, of course, just interesting (to me) to hear the different mentalities on it.

 

 

18 hours ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Sure. I've tried playing Symphony of the Night like at least 10 times, but I've only managed to force myself to finish it 3 times.

Didn’t like it but finished it 3 times?  Sounds like something I’d do…  ?

 

 

18 hours ago, bluejay said:

Nearly every Zelda game; especially the older. But the games are growing on me, so this is getting more and more irrelevant. However, when I first started playing them I played them just because I thought they were crucial games to play as a gamer. 

Have you liked any of them without needing them to “grow on you?”  I like most of the Zelda games, but the only ones that I’ve really loved when playing through in real time (around launch) were Zelda 2,  Minish Cap, and Windwaker. 

 

 

17 hours ago, Pipercub said:

*Yes, I know it isn't a console game, but my hatred of this situation transcends categories.

No judgement here.  Sounds like it fits the criteria to me.  ?

 

 

1 hour ago, digdugnate said:

Earthbound, I'm looking at you.

Earthbound almost got to that point for me.  I played it last year,  or maybe the year before, and I liked it alright, but there were some times I was thinking “not sure if I’m gonna stick with this if it doesn’t wrap things up soon…”

 

 

1 hour ago, zzip said:

After suffering through the "The Last of Us" which was so boring it put me to sleep more than once,  I stopped taking critics very seriously.

You didn’t appreciate all the “walk while listening to dialog” either, huh?   Overall, I liked it ok, but it seems to have started that “lets just walk and listen” crap that (to me) ruined God of War and, to a lesser degree, the last Uncharted.

 

 

[zzip]

5 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

You didn’t appreciate all the “walk while listening to dialog” either, huh?   Overall, I liked it ok, but it seems to have started that “lets just walk and listen” crap that (to me) ruined God of War and, to a lesser degree, the last Uncharted.

IDK,   I guess I just don't enjoy "post-apocalyptic zombie" as a genre, and I didn't find the characters very relatable, got tired of scrounging for bricks, bottles and scissors to make weapons.   That plus the insane levels of hype around the game just made it guaranteed it could never live up to it.   Funny enough, I enjoyed Unchared 4 (or did you mean Lost Legacy?  Haven't played that one).   I didn't expect to like out because the other Uncharteds and TLOU let me down.   But it was free on PS+ and figured I may as well try and mostly wanted to just see how good the graphics were, but it pulled me in and I kept going.

[MrMaddog]

No, because I don't have $60 to spend on every single fad game that comes out all buggy and incomplete.

 

Only exception was Fortnite because A.) it's already "free" and B.) I got a bonus outfit and extra V-Bucks with my Xbox One bundle which is more useful to me than some NBA pack-in game.

 

Of course I got bored with it when it takes one friggin' minute to respawn after getting sniped by some kid who quickly built up a staircase...

[+wongojack]

I do this ALL the time, but I rarely disagree so completely with the reviews that I want to quit.  God of War would make my list.  It was NOT what I was expecting either.  I won't go so far as to say I didn't like it, but it was such a big departure from the original series that I can't say I thought it was a very good use of that license.  Here's what I wrote about it in 2020:

 

I finished the main story in 2018's God of War.  Playing this game was strange for me.  I really liked the story.  In fact, I'm willing to say that they broke new ground in terms of telling a compelling story that crosses over literary genres between mythology and modern "journey lit."  At times, I thought I was playing a video game version of "The Road."  I was impressed throughout by the quality of the storytelling.

 

However . . . and this is hard for me to say because I love story-driven games, but there was almost too much story in this one.  Or maybe the problem was that the gameplay just wasn't that compelling for me.  Or maybe it was just too big a departure from previous God of War games.  I don't know exactly, but something about the actual fighting in this game wasn't as satisfying as past entries. Here's an article I thought was true about the mini-boss trolls just acting as "speedbumps,"  I Hate God of War's Trolls (kotaku.com),  but I thought almost all of the combat sorta felt like a speedbump.  It was thrown into a mix of story and 3d puzzle solving in a way that just didn't let you really feel like you were mastering fighting as Kratos.  I never felt like I got a real hang of the combos on the face buttons and the pace at which you were expected to learn new combat attacks and tactics was too fast to be really enjoyable.  Something else is that I have to look way back into the past to remember a game where I enjoyed shopping and managing my inventory less than I did in this game (maybe something like Armored Core?).  Every time one of those dwarfs popped up with an item shop, I really dreaded it.  The armor and weapon upgrades never really felt like they made any sort of obvious difference, but I was scared to ignore the upgrades entirely.  And the way the menus had you view upgrades but then exit and open another menu to actually view all your equip-able items and skill upgrades almost felt like deliberate punishment.  I wish there was a "upgrade me automatically" button.

 

Anyway, all that complaining to say that I would still give this game a 5/5.  It is a great game, but I'm definitely not as complimentary toward it as many other reviewers.  I probably enjoyed Shadow of the Tomb Raider (which I played earlier this year) a bit more.

 

I haven't played TLOU part II yet, but the original game probably fits into this category for me.  I didn't really enjoy it all that much.  Another one that comes to mind is Zelda:  Twilight Princess.  It was VERY confusing to me why that game was so well reviewed.  For me, it just didn't measure up to the other "open world" and story driven games that were competing against it at the time.  I finished it though.  Going back in time a little, it still confuses my why Metal Gear Solid is so highly praised.  When I finally finished it I lost a little bit of hope in humanity.  I guess the game is ok, but the story is just terrible.

 

I told you I do this a lot, so here are some others that I made myself play (or quit) listed roughly by metacritic score

• GTA IV <- didn't finish
• Doom Eternal <- didn't finish
• Uncharted 4
• Bioshock Infinite
• Hotline Miami <- didn't finish
• Detroit Become Human

 

[Keatah]

2nd thought.. Why be all sadistic and self-torturing? Anyhow, I never played a Zelda Game or Assassin's Creed, or even Battlefield. GTA? I think I watched a video..

 

As far as hype goes, well, yeah, a publisher can generate all the hype they want. And if a game doesn't live up to it it has the potential to look worse than it really is. To compound the situation, hype in the heads of gamers can inflate to really high pressures. Big Bang pressures even! Create their own little universe to hide in.. Woot!

[zzip]

34 minutes ago, wongojack said:

I do this ALL the time, but I rarely disagree so completely with the reviews that I want to quit.  God of War would make my list.  It was NOT what I was expecting either.  I won't go so far as to say I didn't like it, but it was such a big departure from the original series that I can't say I thought it was a very good use of that license.  Here's what I wrote about it in 2020:

God of War actually surprised me.   I really expected to not like it.   But it was free with the PS+ Collection on PS5 so I figured I'd try it.   And I was actully enjoying it, and it looks amazing on PS5!   I never played the originals so I have nothing to compare it to.

 

9 minutes ago, Keatah said:

As far as hype goes, well, yeah, a publisher can generate all the hype they want. And if a game doesn't live up to it it has the potential to look worse than it really is. To compound the situation, hype in the heads of gamers can inflate to really high pressures. Big Bang pressures even! Create their own little universe to hide in.. Woot!

And that's why games like Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky experience such backlash, because the gamer expectations go far beyond what they should be.    For CD Projekt Red,  Witcher III was buggy as hell at launch too, but it was such a good game, people looked past that and gave them a chance to get the patches out.   But because of Witcher III, the mystique of CD Projekt Red had grown so large, that when Cyberpunk was buggy as hell, they were not given the same leeway.    For No Man's Sky, it was a PR problem.   Indie company makes trailers that excite the world, but game's creator didn't know how to handle the press in interviews and promised much more than they could deliver by launch.

[Steven Pendleton]

4 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

Didn’t like it but finished it 3 times?  Sounds like something I’d do…  ?

I actively hated Sonic CD for my first 7 or 8 playthroughs. Now I love it.

[bluejay]

4 hours ago, Razzie.P said:

Have you liked any of them without needing them to “grow on you?”  I like most of the Zelda games, but the only ones that I’ve really loved when playing through in real time (around launch) were Zelda 2,  Minish Cap, and Windwaker.

I’m not sure. It’s difficult to know because generally I like Zelda games when I’m not playing them, but dislike them when I am. Turns out I’m weird. 

[Keatah]

That's like saying you like pets, as long as they're not your own. Or like being married as long as you don't have to put up with her on a daily basis.

[Razzie.P]

2 hours ago, Keatah said:

2nd thought.. Why be all sadistic and self-torturing?

 

For me, it never gets to the point of feeling like any sort of torture.  The ones that I stick with seem to fall into one of 2 categories –

 

1. There’s that nagging sort of feeling, for multiple reasons, depending on the situation, where I WANT to see it through to the end.  I want to have completed that journey and have experienced it firsthand.   Leaving it unfinished / quitting the game tortures me far more than the hours I put into playing it.   And of all the games I’ve made myself finish, I’ve always been glad I did.
2. There are those personal reasons that drives me to finish it – like with Undertale a few years ago.  My son was a pretty big fan and wanted me to play it.  I didn’t like the game at all (at first) but I stuck with it so I could share that connection with him.  Then, the game clicked.  And clicked hard…. After a few playthroughs, it became one of my all-time favorites.   If I hadn’t kept playing because it was important to me, and just quite because I wasn’t “having fun yet,” I’d have missed out on what I consider a gem of a game.

 

Generally, though, I have no problem bailing on a game if I’m not having fun with, despite what the critics have to say.   Recent examples of “acclaimed” games that made me question why I’d wanna waste another minute playing include –

1.     Doom Eternal
2.     Forza Horizon part 4 or 5 or something , hell I dunno…  it stank
3.     Lords of the Fallen
    

But then there’s always those Psychonauts and Xenoblade situations, where I’m not a fan, didn’t dig it at all, but am really glad I stuck with it anyway.

[Razzie.P]

5 hours ago, zzip said:

 Funny enough, I enjoyed Unchared 4 (or did you mean Lost Legacy?  Haven't played that one).   

I meant part 4.    I enjoyed part 4, too.   I love all the Uncharted games.  But with 4, there were so many parts where it got a bit (a lot) boring because nothing was happening.  It's just holding the stick while Drake walked or scaled a wall, with no "game play" just to allow the characters to have dialog.  Seems like that stuff started with LOU, was a huge hit, so it had to somehow spread to GOW and Uncharted 4.    And that damn jeep driving crap was about 90% too long, which again felt like they just needed an opportunity to allow the characters to talk without any of that pesky gameplay getting in the way.

 

[Razzie.P]

47 minutes ago, Keatah said:

That's like saying you like pets, as long as they're not your own. Or like being married as long as you don't have to put up with her on a daily basis.

Well... that seems like sound logic to me.  ?

[MrTrust]

OI did this one upon a time, and occasionally still do with records or movies.  It's not that weird; I don't believe anyone younger than 80 who says they just liked jazz or scotch or Golf the first time they tried them without having to force themselves to like them.  I know I had to, but I think it was worth doing, ultimately.

 

I used to think that games were like this, and to a small extent, I still do.  I love strategy games, but I don't particularly like Chess, or Go, or Shogi, or Checkers, or Hnefatafl, or... you get the idea.  I've never been able to successfully force myself to like any of those, but I'm sure that if I did, the reward would be worth it.  These things have survived for centuries for a reason.

 

But then there are games like Magic: The Gathering, which are "important" in the sense of being very influential and having somewhat of a worthy tradition, but that I simply don't care for, and life's too short to try and make myself like.  I might get something out of it if I did, but M:tG is not Chess, and I don't feel compelled to pay it the same sort of respect.

 

Video games, I tried to do this with for a while, mostly because we didn't have a computer until the late 90s, so there was a ton I missed out on.  Some of it was worth plowing through that "I don't get it phase".  Nethack is like that.  The old Sierra games were like that.  Then, there are games that are just too damn much work, and life has only gotten shorter, so I have to admire then from afar.  Civilization, Flight Simulator, Starcraft, Gran Turismo; things like that.

 

I eventually gave up on modern games almost entirely, but I still made an effort to play The Big Critical Hits, like Red Dead Redemption, Breath of the Wild and the like.  Not so much because I really wanted to play them, but because you want to still be somewhat conversant in what's going on so you can keep up with conversations out in the world.  Similarly, I keep up a basic awareness of sports and make an effort to at least watch some just to have a way to talk to other men in social situations, or watch the Oscar nominees just to know what the hell people are talking about.

 

This, I am just done doing all together.  I don't want to spend the money on the hardware or games to do it, I don't want to spend that kind of time on them, and I just don't like them or think they're objectively any good for the most part.  Video games, as a medium, have been stagnating the same way every other form has for the last 20 years or so, and I don't see any reason to continue to care about them at all.

 

 

[Ninjabba]

Spent some hours in Death Stranding, was hyped to the max for that game prior to its release, and a friend bought it partly because I kept shoving trailers in his face. I figured out within the hour that game is definitely not for me (I'm still puzzled what audience it is meant for).. I generally don't like games that don't respect the time of the gamer, and DS was definitely pushing it beyond that limit for me.

Pokemon seems to be the most popular franchise out there, so I had to give it a shot at some point, trying to understand the popular mechanics as a game dev. Somewhere it was described as a glorified rock-paper-scissor game, which I kind of felt as well.. not much strategy going into any battle. I do like some aspects of the gameplay, it being extremely leisure, but I don't get how its so popular over other games that have more to offer. The story/lore is cringe, and for what it is, I feel like Pokemon could have done something more interesting providing some actual information in that pokedex about the real animal kingdom to make up for the lack of gameplay.

[youxia]

I will try any "important" game outside of my immediate interest scope (if I have time and are in the right mood) but if I don't like it, or it's just in a genre/style I like, I definitely won't force myself to persevere and soldier on. After a few decades with this hobby one doesn't really need to spend that much time with a game to see what it's all about, at least in regard to gameplay. The only time I can imagine myself finishing such game would be if it was for some official assignment, eg review or an academic paper, luckily that does not seem likely to happen (even then I would probably cheat a little anyway)

 

Last week I played the original Super Mario on NES for the first time ever. Pure platformers are simply not my thing, but I did fire it up finally just to tick that box. It's a fine game, but I did quit after few minutes because there are other fine games in genres I actually like, so I'd rather play these. It was the same with Sonic.  I even tried Star Citizen some time ago, but I found  it a bit too bland to carry on (let alone buy into). And then there were games like Myst or Outer Worlds which are from my favourite genres, but I know I most likely wouldn't like for assorted reasons. Others, like early jRPGS, I like a lot and have played in the past, but after getting infected with the roguelike bug I can't put up with their mostly-pointless combat anymore.

 

Exception from the rule: Disco Elysium. There is simply no way I could stomach even a little bit of its oh-so-zeitgeist driven narrative and style.